About 100 years ago in Washington State, we gave up the right to sue our employers when we get injured at work. In exchange, we got a public nonprofit insurance system that pays our medical costs and partially replaces the wages of those who miss work due to on-the-job injuries.
Our employers gladly accepted this trade-off. Facing potentially bankrupting lawsuits whenever an employee was injured, businesses jumped at the chance to pay for this insurance, as long as they got some legal immunity.
The system is called workers' compensation. And by most accounts, it's worked pretty well for a century.
But now, the insurance companies want a piece of the action.
Initiative 1082, which will likely appear on this fall's ballot, would privatize our state's public nonprofit workers' compensation system. It is sponsored by the right wing Building Industry Association of Washington and by the insurance industry, including the notorious AIG. Yes, that too-big-to-fail insurance company that we taxpayers bailed out is the nation's biggest private workers' compensation insurer.
AIG and company will spend millions of dollars to put I-1082 on the ballot and buy advertising to try to convince Washington voters that it will "save jobs."
Of course, their real objective is to make more money.
It should shock no one that giant international insurance companies couldn't care less about saving jobs in this state or about whether Washington is "competitive" enough to attract and maintain businesses. They want to make more money. They plan to do that by investing in I-1082 and saying whatever is necessary to convince voters to privatize Washington's workers' compensation system.
Here are five good reasons why you should not sign or vote for I-1082:
I-1082 will drive up employers' costs. These same profit-minded insurance companies that gouge us on health insurance will do the same with workers' compensation. Rates will skyrocket for employers that want to stay in our public non-profit system because private insurers will cherry-pick the lowest risk employers from the system.
I-1082 will kill jobs and lower wages. I-1082's carrot for workers is that it promises to end the workers' roughly 25 percent share of contributions to the system. But that translates to a 25 percent rate hike for employers, which will be forced to cut wages to try to make up the difference, or worse, to cut precious jobs at the worst possible time amid a recession.
I-1082 will add a profit motive to our public, nonprofit system. Wall Street-based insurance companies like AIG are driven by the bottom line, not by public service. They try to deny as many injured workers' claims as possible, and charge employers as much as they can possibly get away with.
I-1082 will force injured workers to fight the giant insurance companies for their benefits. These private insurers routinely deny claims